Are all Bleaches equal?

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Davsmth41

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May 21, 2012
45
York Pennsylvania
Being new to BBB, I am really shopping around for bleach deals. Here is my dilemma. Clorox which states on the bottle as 6% looked good. The MSDS says only 5.85% usable chlorine? Which number do I go by?

Generics - Looked at the generics and found some great deals. Best one being at the local grocery store 182 oz $249. It clamed 6%. Other generics they hand were cheaper but did not list the concentration. Grrrr. This was true for all the dollar stores, Walmart, lowes, and the Depot, even some Clorox bottles did not list concentration. So.. I look up MSDS's to try and find out. Clorox says between 5 - 10% ??? Is this because I guy might turn a valve at different times effecting the concentration?

I could not track down the generic MSDS's yet but I'm looking.

Can anyone shed some light? There are some great deals out there but I am not buying unless I know what I'm getting. Comments?
 
The general rule of thumb is that if the label doesn't list the % concentration, stay away from it.

6% is the number you should go by and the strength you want unless it's just not available where you are.
 
And I learned that rule of thumb just the other day. I usually hit up Lowe's if I'm not by Aldi, where bleach is supreme el cheapo. Lowe's decided for some stupid reason to discontinue carrying their 182 oz. house brand, which was 2.49. Instead, they replaced it with some overstock 128 oz. brand called Cloralex. Direct from Mexico. Nothing wrong with that, but I bought it anyway. No info on the label, so I looked up the MSDS after I dumped it in the pool. 5%.
 
My own personal experience is that Walmart's own brand or Sam's Club, or even Costco has the best deals on bleach. Don't buy any bleach from Dollar stores, they're usually old and have lost most of their strength. Also make sure you don't use the thick bleach or anything scented. I've never looked at the MSDS for the bleach, but if it says 6% on the bottle then you should be fine. If you can find store bought bleach at 10% that's ok too, just make sure you're accounting for that when you add it, or switch it in the pool calculator. You can also buy liquid bleach from pool stores at higher percentages and that can be more economical for some people.
 
Using the MSDS is not that reliable as you see from the "5 to 10%" quote. This document is meant as a safety factor for industrial use to communicate to workers what they are using and how they should handle it, what to do if exposed, etc. the range is acceptable for that use.

The 6% or other indications on the bottle are consumer information and approximate figures for that purpose. Chemicals such as this are made in large quantities and packaged from that large tank.

For our puposes, the big issue is knowing the difference in 6%, 12%, other %, or not indicated.
 
A couple of things to keep in mind, first bleach looses strength as it ages, so always buy fresh, not that left over spring clearance "12%" from the pool store, because it is likely not 12% anymore. Next it seems most reputable brands will account for this so fresh bleach may be higher than advertised in concentration so it does not drop down below the advertised amount during its shelf life. Also 5.25% bleach and 6% bleach can be the same thing, just being measured differently (% by weight, or % by volume, I forget which way is which, some of the better labelled ones will tell you listing it both ways in the fine print).
 
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